Animorphs 55: The Future
by Saiyan5Nine-tails
Summary: It has been sixteen years after the Animorphs disappeared in deep space. Their disappearance was the first of many fractures in the peaceful relations between Humans, Andalites and Hork-Bajir. Now, Cassie is passing on the Morphing powers and the name Animorphs to a new generation, who will inherit the responsibility of keeping the peace between Earth and the Andalites.
1. Animorphs 55: The Future - Prologue

My name is Jake Berenson.

I am an Animorph. Three years ago, my leadership ended the invasion of Earth by the Yeerks, a race of parasites who took over people's brains and controlled them. They took my brother, Tom, turning him into one of their Controllers for three years. I lost him to the Yeerks. I had to order my cousin, Rachel, another Animorph, to kill Tom to kill the Yeerk inside his head. At night, I still have nightmares that are just that same scene repeating over and over again: Rachel as a bear holding my brother Tom, morphed into a cobra, and giving the order to kill him.

Now, I have found those same, subhuman parasites part of the group Tom's Yeerk was part of. Deep in alien space, far from home, on a mission to save an old friend, Ax. Only, it seems, Ax isn't there anymore, either. With their empire gone, it seems these Yeerks found something else. Something they called the One.

It had taken over Ax's body, speaking to us through a red-rimmed mouth it had made on the normally mouthless Andalite face.

"But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be."

This thing looked like evil incarnate. Just like the Yeerks, only more so. The Yeerks took over your mind to control your body, but they didn't consume and make their hosts "part of them". All this way, only for another friend to be taken over by another enemy. Only for another person close to me to become the enemy.

"Can we shoot?" I asked Menderash, an Andalite who had permanently morphed into a Human. I didn't care if the One, the Yeerk's new messianic figure, heard me.

I didn't care. I could just feel the bundle of heat building in my mind. That heat bringing me to a state of calm I hadn't felt in a while.

"His Dracon cannon have longer range and greater power," Menderash reported grimly. "And his defensive fields have been enhanced. I doubt our cannon can penetrate them."

"Thought so," I said, calm in my voice. "But we're faster."

"Yes."

"Okay." I took a deep breath, letting absolute calm wash over me. I looked around the bridge at everyone I had brought on this mission. Menderash, the Andalite who became a Human _nothlit _to go on this mission to an area of space where no Andalites are supposed to cross over into. Sergeant Santorelli and Jeanne Gerard, two adult soldiers who I choose due to their lack of family. With every moment, I was more thankful for that decision.

At Tobias. One of the original Animorphs, trapped in the form of a red-tailed hawk for six years now. He is here because Ax is in danger, and Ax is his family. I can only imagine how he feels, knowing Ax was gone before we ever arrived.

At Marco. My best friend. He had adjusted to life after the war, much easier than I did. I recalled what Marco said to me before we left: "What was it, Marco? 'Crazy, reckless, ruthless decisions'?"

I felt a smile cross my face. A seemingly unwinnable battle against impossible odds. A fight against an enemy we can only barely understand. Rachel would have loved this.

At that moment, I realized, _I loved it. _My instincts were urging me to go out fighting.

"Full emergency power to the engines," I said. "Ram the Blade Ship."

No one on board protested, and everyone buckled in. We all knew this was our one chance.

Inertia pushed on us as much as the technology of _The Rachel _allowed, the ship named after my cousin screaming towards the Blade Ship. No fancy manoeuvers. No great escape.

One last charge.

I ordered the Dracon Beams to fire as the Blade Ship powered up. Our beams could not break through the Blade Ship's superior ships, but it might just be enough. An impossible chance to survive.

As we were seconds away from colliding with the Blade Ship, I looked at the One, wishing to see the face of my enemy - the twisted face of a friend - as it realized what was about to happen, and smiled viciously.

In the next moment, the One did something that froze the blood in my veins and made me abandon all feelings of excitement, replaced by a dawning dread.

The One closed Ax's eyes and laughed.

In the last moments, before _The Rachel _rammed the Blade Ship, I knew. This _thing _could not be allowed to reach Earth. Could not be allowed to reach Andalite space. It would be the end of _everything _if we failed here.

I just had enough time to realize that before _The Rachel _smashed into the Blade Ship. Our shields failed, warning lights blared, metal screeched against metal as the two Yeerk vessels impacted one another, people yelling. We were thrown around in our seats, buckles feeling like they'd rip me in half as inertia tried to pull me forward.

Seconds of chaotic turbulence later, we finally settled. Heavy panting came from my mouth.

"Are we dead?"

I looked in Marco's direction. His eyes were squeezed tight. I couldn't blame him. I still have no idea how I kept my eyes wide open to the moment of impact and through the collision. I told him he could open his eyes.

I looked around again. Santorelli, Menderash and Gerard were still alive. It was either a miracle, or _The Rachel _was one sturdy little cruiser.

Just like Rachel herself, was.

I looked around again, panicked. Tobias. I couldn't see Tobias! I unbuckled and got up. Did he...? During the crash...?

(You...Are...Psychotic.)

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief even as remorse washed through my body. Tobias was on the ground, his wings broken as he was splayed on the ground. With no harness for himself, he had nothing to keep him still during the collision. But one wing was stitching itself together and simultaneously growing tiny Human fingers at the ends of the wing.

Morphing. The power to acquire the DNA of another living being and become that being for two hours at maximum. The power we used to fight the Yeerks for three years starting when we were just thirteen years old. Among its many benefits was healing any injuries sustained during morph, a clean physical template. Tobias would live.

"I'm sorry, Tobias," I told him. "But we had no other choice."

(I'm not disagreeing with you on that), Tobias spoke through thought-speak. (Whatever that thing is, I think we all can agree we can't let it get away alive.)

I nodded grimly. I called to Menderash. "Menderash, what's our status?"

"What shields we had helped lessen the impact. Ship status is...That can't be right. We're _fused with the Blade Ship?!"_

Fused? What the heck did that mean? I watched as he pulled up a visual of the outside of the ship. My eyes widened. Oh. That was what he meant.

Right in the camera's view, the Blade Ship's frame was visible. We had collided right where the axe-like wings were connected to the main body of the ship. At that point, our ship should have ripped clean through it through sheer velocity, decapitating the Blade Ship.

Instead, the hull of the Blade Ship seemed to have melted into _The Rachel, _binding the two ships together.

A chill went through my spine. "It can't be. The One. It did something!"

"Captain, how are you certain?" Menderash asked though I could hear the fear in his voice.

I rambled, talked about things that we had decided to keep hidden about our adventures. "That _thing. _Whatever it is, it has some kind of power. Like the Drode or Crayak or...!"

My soul froze. Could Crayak be the thing pulling this monster's strings?

"Drode? Crayak? Sir, what are you talking about?" Gerard asked.

"Jake!"

I turned to look at Tobias, fully morphed into Tobias. Well, _Human _Tobias. The dissonance of seeing his Human self again took my mind away from the impending nightmare for a moment. He had lived six years as a Red-tailed Hawk. He hadn't morphed back to Human ever since Rachel died. So I had never realized that Tobias's Human morph - his Human self, a gift from the Ellimist - _hadn't aged at all. _Here he was, physically a thirteen-year-old kid looking at me in the hull of a Yeerk Cruiser, a hawk-like expression in his eyes.

"This thing can't be connected to Crayak!" He told me. "Crayak plays by rules. You know that! This..._monster is something else_!"

"How astute."

The otherworldly voice curled around my soul, and everyone on the bridge turned towards the source.

I saw Ax's body walk _through the bulkhead _like it was just a drape. Metal bent around the One as it casually walked into the back area of our ship. The One's shape dissolved, Andalite changing into the elfin appearance we had seen earlier on the screen, walking gracefully on two slender feet. I don't know what disturbed me more: the fact the change happened so quickly, or that the One looked so _friendly in this shape._

"Indeed, I am no servant of that child Crayak, Tobias the Hawk." He smiled pleasantly at Tobias, who hurriedly backed away. "He is a brute, one now bound by infantile games to which he's just a player."

"Then...What are you?" I asked. Crayak had been a cosmic being who had tried to mess with our lives more than once. For him to be called "child" and "brute" by this thing...

"You've already been told. 'The One Who is Many'." It dissolved again into the mechanical monstrosity it first appeared as, slithering on a mechanical tail. "'The One Who is All'." Throughout, it still maintained the same, measured tone. "And all things, I am. Flesh. Plant. Machine. I was One with the Blade Ship when you rammed it. I was the ship that lured in and captured your dear friend."

It's emotionless monotone frightened me more than anything I had ever heard fighting Esplin 9466, the Yeerk who led the invasion of Earth as Visser Three, then Visser One. Esplin was bombastic and arrogant. The One...Spoke as if everything it said was fact.

I looked around. Santorelli, Gerard and Menderash were turned around in their seats, but no one was moving to sit up. This was something none of them could have been prepared for. I saw Menderash silently, slowly putting inputs into the ship computer.

"Tobias Fangor. Jake Berenson. Marco Cabrera. I know all that Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill knew about you. It will take you precious time to morph - or demorph..." Its body dissolved back into Ax as it regarded Tobias. "...So I offer you a chance to surrender. Be one with me, and live forever. But if you wish to fight, I'll give you time to morph. Either way, you'll be one with me."

Marco was the one who spoke first. "Yeah, well, you've got a great sales pitch, but I'm not buying that people would just offer themselves up to you like that."

"Do living beings sacrifice on altars to appease false Gods?" The One spoke. "Many have witnessed me, called me a God, and gladly..."

"And you talk down to Crayak like that, but, in my experience, Crayak could snap his metaphorical fingers and make you go _poof! _We know the Ellimist, too, and you don't look at all impressive compared to him. I mean, they don't need bodies, yet _you do." _I had to admit, even when rambling for time, Marco could see things that I didn't and point them out. Crayak _didn't _need a body, though he had a servant, Drode. The One not only used the Yeerks as servants; he also seemed to have a physical form.

I smiled. And if he had a physical form, he could be killed. "Marco is right." I started morphing. I felt the coils of a tiger build up under Human skin, arms bulking inhumanly. It was hard to get used to even years later, how random it always was. Beside me, Marco and Tobias followed suit. "You have a body, so you can be killed. You may know of Crayak from Ax's memories, but..." My mouth roared with a tiger's bellow and I switched over to thought-speak, getting down on all four. ...You are nothing compared to him.

The One answered, laughing. "Kill me? Really? You will have to kill _every life _I've taken into myself over billions of years of existence. The forms I presented before. Your friend, Ax. One by one. I won't tire. _You will." _

(Menderash, I hope your plan works,) I said privately.

(Let us hope warrior's fortune will see it through), Menderash answered, though he didn't elaborate. If we were assimilated, he didn't want our memories exposing our plan.

"I have no clue what Marco and Jake were on about with these 'Crayaks' and 'Ellimists'," I heard Santorelli said, "but we are not letting you anywhere near Earth." My tiger ears heard Santorelli and Gerard unbuckle, and I knew they must have been starting to morph as well to fight alongside us. Five vs. one. Even if that One could be whatever he wanted, we'd still have enough time, kill enough of him for Menderash's plan to work.

Even if it meant killing what was left of Ax.

"How bold of you Humans, to stand against me." The One spoke. "In respect of your courage, Jake the Yeerk-Killer, I will clarify two details for you."

"One: I have been rampaging across Kelbrid Space for the better part of a century, now. Assimilating their race planet by planet. I believe you've seen some of their ruins on your way here, searching for your friend. I was on my way to their core worlds when..." He paused, then finished. "I was redirected."

I blinked. (Redirected, by who?)

The One smiled, Ax's face peeling unnaturally. "Two: I was redirected by _my _master. I believe your Ellimist once called him, 'the one power greater than Crayak'."

I mind went blank. I didn't stop morphing, but I was frozen in place. The one being greater than Crayak. A being greater than the Ellimist himself. Something that had been mentioned by Ellimist when explaining Crayak's nature and motives. Crayak, already a genocidal maniac hellbent on having all life destroy each other and ruling over the one race that remained, had been forced out of his galaxy by another.

A power the One called _Master. _

"I don't know my master's intent, yet, but it seems tied to you three and your absent friends." He eyed Menderash, Santorelli and Gerard. "Those three are of no interest, just like my now-dead Yeerk servants."

Well, that answered that question. The ram killed the Morph-capable Yeerks. "After I assimilate you three, I'll kill your allies, and make my way to Earth. Presuming that the _other _doesn't show up in the meantime."

(The other? What other?) Tobias asked, flapping his wings in the air.

"Crayak's new servant," The One answered simply, dissolving into a new shape, a giant with six legs, six arms, and three-faced head with three giant eyes. "My master warned me about them. Unlike the scheming Drode, this new servant is more..." The One smiled oddly. "...Like a Goddess of War."

There was a clang behind the One. A shadowy shape was there that hadn't been there before. Beside me, Tobias screeched loudly.

"Ah, there you are..." The One spoke to the new arrival.


	2. Animorphs 55: The Future - Chapter 1

Hello, my name is Callum.

You will come to know my last name soon enough, because of what you will come to know about me. Some things you obviously already know, but I will talk about them because of how they relate to my personal life.

I was born in the years after the Yeerk invasion of Earth. Obviously, since I am fifteen years old and the year is 2019. But I was also born in the year when the world learned all but one of the Animorphs was presumed dead on a secret mission into space.

Among the original five Animorphs, Rachel Berenson had died on the final day of the war, and her killers - Morph-capable Yeerks - had escaped in an alien warship to parts unknown. Three years later, a year before I was born, Jake Berenson and Marco Cabrera vanished off the face of the Earth, including two soldiers who had been selected to be part of Jake Berenson's Morphing classes to combat terrorists targeting alien. The following year, the year I was born, the Andalites revealed what happened under pressure from Earth governments. Aximili had been sent to hunt down the renegade Yeerks that escaped on the final day of the war, but only one of his _aristh_, an Andalite named Menderash-Postill-Fastill made it back alive. Under orders from Caysath-Winwall-Esgarrouth, they snuck into Earth orbit, "stole" a Yeerk Cruiser and went off to rescue Aximili from the Yeerks, who had escaped to Kelbrid space where Andalites had a treaty with to never cross their borders.

They never came back, and the Andalites had to presume the Animorphs died in space. The backlash was horrible.

People were outraged that the Andalites had sent most of Earth's greatest heroes off on a suicide mission to save 'one of their own'. There were saner heads involved - people who recognized that, from the report, the Animorphs had gone of their own free will - but much louder voices drowned them out. Two months after the announcement, an attack claimed the lives of two noted Andalite scientists, leaving their baby daughter, Shirheem-Xenill-Shamtul, an orphan. The father, Renlan-Xenill-Kellath, had been a Prince during the Yeerk-Andalite War who had often visited Earth to study the fruits of Human imagination - literature, film, TV shows, you name it.

Because he was a Prince, the Andalite Electorate was furious at his death.

The trade of technology to Earth by the Andalites came to a screeching halt after that. The counterterrorism unit entrusted with the morphing cube was allowed to keep it under stricter usage, and Cassie Nascimento took over teaching them how to use the Morphing technology. The first Human Z-Space vehicle had been finished, but key technologies and resources used had been supplied by the Andalites in a limited amount. They decided they would not supply any more significant advancements until, as Lirem-Arrepath-Terrouss said, Humans have sorted out their barbarism.

When I was old enough to understand, I was told the real reason: the Andalites were afraid of a worse repeat of the Yeerk Empire. I was told of Seerow's Kindness - a law put in place with its roots at the beginning of the Yeerk-Andalite War. An Andalite called Prince Seerow had taken pity on the Yeerks and taught them engineering, science, astronomy, writing, and about Andalite technology. For a race of alien slugs, the Yeerks proved surprisingly intelligent, but also wanting of the world beyond their pools.

They repaid Seerow's kindness with death and deceit, and so began the Andalite-Yeerk War.

Uncle Virren sums up Lirem's motives like so: When Lirem sees Humans, and he sees a potential nightmare worse than the Yeerks. A species numbering in the billions, a hundred times more than the number of Andalites. Lirem sees a possible future where Humans, allowed to grow too quickly, become the greatest threat to the galaxy.

Now, you might be wondering why my uncle has such insight into the mind of an Andalite part of the Electorate. Well, it is because he is an Andalite, Virren-Jenill-Valoren. How he became my uncle will take some explaining.

Renlan was his brother and Prince during the Yeerk-Andalite War. My parents first met him when he and his brother came as Andalite tourists. Virren wanted cinnamon buns. Renlan wanted to see Human stories. My parents offered cinnamon cake and every form of media entertainment they had on hand, including a novel my parents were co-authoring together. This was the beginning of their friendship, one made stronger by the fact my parents were as enthusiastic about learning about Andalites and Renlan was about Humans (and Uncle Virren about Human foods). As Virren told me, he considered my parents to be _shorm - _deep friends. Once my parent's first book was done, Renlan even helped them write a story integrating Humans and Andalites together - the first of the Human-Andalite genre stories by J.C and K.E. Verne, so now you know my last name.

As it happened, Renlan had come with his brother and family to work on another book with my parents - and see what new stories had been written by Humans in the time he had been away - when the spaceport they were arriving at exploded. Someone had hidden an explosive device in the spaceport, knowing that Andalite visitors were coming.

The explosion had been detonated right where they were landing just before their craft touched down. Shirheem survived because her mother, a woman named Kelay-Kyanil-Gyheen, shielded her with her own body when they crashed. Virren survived because he morphed Human to heal his other-wise fatal injuries. Renlan had died instantly. I was never told the state his body was found in.

The trade of technology was halted soon after, and an investigation was launched by the Andalite Electorate with Human aid. They discovered the perpetrators were a small, local group of religious extremists who had "protested" the presence of aliens on Earth in the past, claiming Andalites were "demons" trying to turn people away from God. They brought in and interrogated one of them, and made certain to find out the names of the specific individuals who had made and planted the bombs that destroyed the landing pad and Renlan's arriving shuttle. They managed to find out where they were planning to meet next, where they were going to plan how to finish the job, including killing my parents.

The local police wanted to bring them all in. The Andalites insisted and made sure Virren had his way with them first.

Honour is a big deal among Andalites. You can expect them to keep their word and their vows. Virren had made one particular vow after he survived the crash: to avenge his family's deaths. My mother once told me that, during that time, he was hellbent on finding out who killed his family, and was part of the interrogation.

The story I heard was Virren had used his Human morph to infiltrate the meeting and, once he had made certain who each person there was, killed all seven people responsible for planting the bombs while the rest were arrested as collaborators.

Mom told me there had been a stereotype and illusion going around about the Andalites back then that went like this: "you could buy the friendship of any Andalite with a donut". With Virren being the first Andalite to kill Humans, even in vengeance, that illusion had been shattered.

The Electorate insisting Andalite law superseded Human law in cases of crimes against Andalites did not help the matter.

After all this, he became my uncle. Virren needed help raising Shirheem, and he decided he would continue on with his brother's work on Earth. Choosing to live with my family was his personal decision. The Electorate's own decision was to promote him to Prince and, after much negotiating, gave him warriors and a commanding role in the counterterrorism efforts alongside Cassie, who at this point had become Cassie Nascimento-Chambers.

They had mostly finished their work by the time I was five years old. By that time, Virren had settled down on Earth permanently with my family, raising Shirheem with the help of my parents. That was a thing for a bit - the first Andalite-Human family. Some things were difficult growing up, but nothing I feel like recounting here.

"Why not?"

I looked up at the person I was narrating my life's story for. The young adult Hork-Bajir sat cross-legged, a curious sight for a species with sharp blades on their heads and every limb of their bodies. The seven-foot-tall Hork-Bajir looked fearsome, but I found them more friendly and cuddlier than many Humans when you get to know them.

"You have already told the story of your parents, and the story of your chosen family. Why not tell the story of the rest of your life?"

I smiled at Aldrea Hamee. "The rest of my life is not that interesting. Everything important that happened with my family happened before I was born, or when I was too young to remember."

"But your family story is connected to everything else. The continued restriction on trade of technology between Andalite and Humans. The beginning of the tensions between Humans and Andalite. Humans and Hork-Bajir. And now you are here with me, to take on the power to morph other beings. I wish to know why you chose this path. What part of your life led you to desire the power to morph."

"Maybe another time," Callum told Aldrea, looking over at Shirheem sitting nearby, her purple fur lightly reflecting the sunlight, her slender frame and graceful posture even as she was sitting in the grass. "Are you ready to go, Shirheem?"

(Not yet,) Shirheem's warm words echoed in my mind, and she looked at Aldrea. (What about you, Aldrea? What is your life's story? Aldrea is an Andalite name, and you are the first Hork-Bajir I have ever heard of to volunteer to acquire Morphing powers.)

I agreed with her. Hork-Bajir tended to keep to Yellowstone National Park. The one Hork-Bajir who communed with the rest of the world most was Toby Hamee, Aldrea's grandmother -her father-mother, as Aldrea called her. Governor of the Free Hork-Bajir Colony and leader of her people. Toby Hamee called herself a Seer, a Hork-Bajir with an intellect far surpassing the rest of her people. Aldrea was a Seer as well.

"That is a story. Like Callum Verne, I need to tell my family story to explain mine."

Aldrea started rocking back and forth, back and forth. After a minute of waiting, Aldrea began her story.

As I listened to her tale, I realized her family story _was _**the** beginning.


	3. Animorphs 55: The Future - Chapter 2

**Aldrea **

My family story is one that crosses the stars. Crosses the races of Hork-Bajir, and Andalites. One that goes back to the beginning of what led us all to where we are.

For, you see, my family line goes back to the Andalite called Seerow.

Prince Seerow showed his kindness to the Yeerks. He believed they had a right to exist among the other sentient races. He showed them the stars and shared much of what the Andalites knew. They took advantage of his kindness, killed Andalites and escaped off-world. Prince Seerow was disgraced, his family sent across Mother Sky to the homeworld of the Hork-Bajir because it was believed to be unimportant. But just like Earth was at the end of the Great War, our world became the most important world in its beginning.

The daughter of Prince Seerow was my name-sake, Aldrea-Iskillion-Falan. A female Andalite who met and befriended a Hork-Bajir Seer, Dak Hamee. Among my people, Seers are rare. The intelligence that our race's creators, the Arn, could never fully extinguish - an intelligence equal to theirs.

When the Yeerks found our people, they brought with them one named Esplin 9466, the Yeerk who desired the Andalite form above all others, the Yeerk that would one day lead the invasion of your Earth. You see the symmetry in fate, do you not? His story began with my people; his story ended on Earth.

The Yeerks found Aldrea's family and killed them, but they failed to kill her. They fought and fled into Father Deep where they found the Arn. Guided by Aldrea, Dak Hamee marshalled his people to war against the Yeerks, for it was upon our world that they began to build their war machine. Aldrea sent a message across Mother Sky to the Andalites.

The Andalites sent the butcher, Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. He fought for our people for a time, but he tired of a battle he could not win. He combined Arn biotechnology and Andalite technology to create a Quantum Virus targeting Hork-Bajir DNA. Aldrea and Dak Hamee attempted to stop him, but the Virus still got loose, decimating our people and leaving the survivors to be taken by the Yeerks.

Going against her own people, Aldrea chose to become Hork-Bajir. In the depths of the valleys of Father Deep, she and Dak Hamee survived. They bore a son, Seerow Hamee. They passed on their story to him. Eventually, they died on the homeworld and Seerow was captured and taken by a Controller. Seerow had a child, Jara, and he told Jara the story of Aldrea, daughter of Seerow, and Dak Hamee. Seerow was taken to Earth with his child, where he died a captive of the Yeerks. But Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak, mother and father of Toby Hamee, were the first free Hork-Bajir, led to freedom by Tobias, the namesake of Toby Hamee, with the aid of the Ellimist. They became the first free Hork-Bajir.

Many Hork-Bajir would be freed over the years, and Toby Hamee would fight alongside the Animorphs, the saviours of my people. At the end of the Great War, Jara Hamee would die, but his children, Toby and Ax Hamee, and all Hork-Bajir now lived free on Earth, on our new home. The Human Cassie worked with Toby Hamee to make a place for my people on Earth, but some Humans are not happy with our presence on their 'Mother Earth'. Toby had three children - Tila, Jak, and my father Mab. Ax Hamee had a daughter and son.

Nine years ago, a blessing came upon my people from across Mother Sky. The Arn, Quafijinivon, who had come to Earth during the Great War to take Hork-Bajir DNA to create a new colony to fight the Yeerks on the Hork-Bajir Homeworld, had a secret he told no one. He was not the last Arn. Rather, with the very few remaining Arn that had hidden from the Yeerks in the valleys of Father Deep, they created a gift for the Hork-Bajir, and redemption and salvation for themselves. They blessed the new Hork-Bajir they created with great intellect, and they were successful in fighting the Yeerks until the war ended. Once the great war ended, the Arn turned to recreate their own race. Now, across the stars on our homeworld and on Earth, the Arn and Hork-Bajir live anew.

Three years ago, I was born as a Seer. As was Marco Hamee, son of Ax Hamee's daughter.

But I and Toby Hamee have seen the signs of increasing tension in the Humans towards Hork-Bajir, and Toby Hamee is now an elder to my people. We believe a new Seer is needed to be a bridge between Hork-Bajir, Humans and Andalites alike. I chose to become the envoy for my people, and I chose to attain the Morphing power so that I may better serve the Hork-Bajir.

* * *

I stopped rocking and looked up to regard the Human and Andalite who would be by my side in the future. Callum Verne, a Human with dirty blond hair and green eyes looked at me with a puzzled expression. I did not blame him. There were things I told in my story that had never been told to Human ears before. His wide-eyed expression and slightly open mouth told the tale. I turned to Shirheem-Xenill-Shamtul. Her expression was a mix of both surprise and wariness. You can tell an Andalite's emotions through their eyes and hers were more analytical of my story.

(So, one of your ancestors was _the _Aldrea, daughter of Seerow?) Shirheem asked.

"That is the truth passed along my family. The Hork-Bajir do not embellish their stories." I told her.

(You spoke of the Ellimist, but that cannot be. The Ellimist is a fairy tale. An Andalite fairy tale.)

I raised a finger. "It was Tobias who told my people of the Ellimist, during the days he stayed with us. He told my people many stories of his battles alongside his friends after the war. The Ellimist appeared in a number of them."

Her eyes grew introspective, wondering.

"I heard the name Ellimist in the stories Virren told me and Shirheem," Callum said, " but I've read Jake Berenson and Cassie Nascimento-Chambers' autobiographies on the Animorphs, and not once did they ever mention the Ellimist."

"That's because there were things we wanted to keep secret." A woman's voice said.

We turned towards the source of the voice. Standing just outside the trees was Cassie Nascimento-Chambers, the last Animorphs, and current President of the United States. Even though she was the representative of the country, out here, in the wilderness, she was dressed casually in a black shirt and blue overalls. Beside her was a dark-skinned thirteen-year-old boy who was rapidly catching up to his mother in height. The boy's name was Jacob Nascimento-Chambers, and he would be another who would acquire Morphing powers with the three of us.

"I'm sorry, Cassie," I hurriedly stood up and bowed my head humbly, "I did not know you wished the Ellimist to be kept secret."

Cassie smiled warmly, forgivingly. "It's alright. We had agreed not to speak of the Ellimist because, in spite of everything, we had agreed he was the one thing that no one would believe about our adventures."

"Given your story involved brain-controlling slugs and shape-shifting powers straight out of comic books, that's quite an interesting line to draw," Callum said behind me, and I heard the dry tone of his voice.

"Back then, we thought it would just be unbelievable." A sombre expression came to her face. "These days, however, I think it was not just the right thing to do, but the secret that _had to be kept."_

I understood well what Cassie was implying. Many Humans did not like Hork-Bajirs and Andalites because we were not originally of their Earth. For many, our existence and presence on Earth went against their spiritual beliefs. My grandmother told me of the difficulties she sometimes had with such Humans. Callum had shared the consequences of such beliefs in his family story.

(Why are you here, President Nascimento-Chambers?) Shirheem asked.

"My last two students just arrived," Cassie explained, "and Virren is getting permission from the Electorate to use the new Morphing Cubes they've developed with the aid of the Arn. You'll all be the first non-military Humans to be given the power to morph since the Yeerk Invasion."

I noticed the sadness in her voice. The first since her friends, all long gone, is what she meant.

"Until Virren is done talking with the Electorate, I was hoping you three would take the time to get to know the others."


End file.
